Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1887-06-04


four horses can go sixty miles day for that
time, and more. They are fat as butter, and
there is lots of grass along the road IL can't
get forage for them Besides, tho cart will
be nearly empty, so can carry a mud of
meaIies and fifty bundles of forage with me.
| will take that Zulu boy, Mouti tnedicine),
with ne. He does not know much about
horses, but he Is a plncky fellow, and would
stick by one at pinch. One can't rely on
Jantje; he is always sncalling OFF somewhere,
and would be sure to get drunk just as one
wanted him.
"Yes, yes, John, that's right, that's right"
said the old man. Il will go and see about
having the horses got up and lhe wheels
creased. Where is the castor oil, Bessie
There is nothing like castor oil for these
patent axles You ought TO be off in an hour.
You had better sleep at Luck's tonight; you
might get farther, but Lacks is good place
to stop, and they will look after You well
| there, and You can be off by in the morning
| and be at Heidelberg by 10 O'clock tomorrow
night and in Pretoria by the next afternoon"
| and he hustled of to make the necessary
preparations.
"Oh, JOHN" said Bessie, beginning to cry, al
| don't like your going at all among those wild
Doors. You nre an English officer. and if
| they find You cut They VIII shoot You. You
don't know what brutes some of them are
| when they think it safe TO he 50. Oh, John,
John, can't bear your going"
Cheer up, my dear" said John, "anl for
| Henycns sake stop crying, for can't bear it.
must go Your uncle would never forgive
| me If | didn't, and what is more, | should
| never forgive myself. There is nobody else
| to 20, and we can't leave jess TO be shut up
there i'll Pretoria-for months perhaps. As
| for the rlA. of course there is bit of risk,
| but must take It. ] am not afraid of risks
| at least | Used net to be- hut YOU have made
a bit of a coward of me, Bessie dear There,
| give me a hiss, I'D Glrl, and come and help
ire to pack my things Please God shall
/ get back all right, and jess with me, in
week from now"
| Wherc0n Bessie, bcinc a sensible and EMU
nemtiy practical young woman, dried her
| tears. and with cheerful face, albeit her
heart was heavy enough. set TO work with a
will TO make every preparation she could
| think of The few clothes Johu was going to
take with him were packed IL n Gladstone
bag, and the box that was arranged under
| meath the movable seat III the Cape cart
was filed sith the timed provisions that are
80 much used in South Afriis, snd all the
other little arrangements, small in themselves,
tut Of such miuite Importance TO the tray-
eler in a wild country, were duly attended to
| by her careful hands. Then came hurried
meal and before it was swallowed the cart was
at the door, with Jantie hanging as usual on
to the heads of the two front horses, and the
staluart Zulu, OF rather Swat boy, Mouti,
whose sole luggage appeared to consist of a
bundle of assegais and sticks wrapped up in n
grass mat, and who, hot as it was, was en-
veloped in vast military great coat, loung-
ing placidly alongside.
Good 10y, John, dear john said Bessie,
kissing him again and again, and striving to
keep back the tears that, do what She could,
would gather in her blue eyes. Good by,
my love"
tod bless YOU. dearest he SAID, simply
kiss NJ her III answer, good by, Mr.. Croft,
hope TO see You again i'll n week, ;" and he
was in the cart and had gathered up the long
and intricate looking reins Jantic let go
the horses. heads and gave u whoop. Mout,
giving up star gazing, suddenly became an
auimJi"l being and scrambled into the cart
with surprising alsJIity; the horses sprang
ioI0s,ci ut band gall"r and were soon hid
den from rs-lc,s aim SIGHT in a cloud ot dust
| Poor Bessie, /; was a hard trial; ami now
that John had gone and her tears could not
distress him, She went into her room and
gave way 10 them freely enough.
John reached Luck's, an establishment on
the Pretoria road that happily combined the
characteristics Of an inn, a shop and farm
hnns,a StrCl % 10 IA in S1,nrySpll-
Populated countries. It was not an inn and
not farm house, strictly speaking, nor was
it altogether a shop though there was a
store attached. If the Traveller were anx-
ious to obtain accommodation for man and
beast at a place of this stamp he had to pro
coed warily, 50 to speak lest be should be re-
quested to move on. He must advance, hat
in hand, and ask to be taken in as favor, as
many a high handed Traveller, accustomed to
the obsequious attentions of "mine host, y
has learned to his cost. There is DO
such dreadful autocrat as your half and half
: inn keeper in South Africa, and then he is so
completely master of the situation. If YOU
: don't like it, go and be Id to you," is his
simple answer to the circumstances of the
Infatuated vOyager. Aud then YOU mus.
either knock under and look as though you
/ liked it, or trek on into the "unhostelIed'
wilderness On hiSoccaSion, however, John
Jared well enough. To begin with be knew
the owncrs of this place, who were very civil
people if approached i'll humble spirit, and
J furthermore, he found everybody in such a
state of unpleasurable excitement that they
! were only too glad to get another Engishman
to talk the matters over with. Not that
their information amounted to much, how
} ever. There was rumor of the Bronker'S
Spruit disaster and other rumors Of the in.
veStment of Pretoria, and of the advance OF
large bodies of Beers TO take possession Of the
= pass over the Drakensburg, known as Laing'
Mex, but there was no definite intelligence.
a.; You won't get into Pretoria" said one
t melancholy man. so its no use trying. The
!, Beers will just catch You and kill you. and
; there will be an end of it. You had better
: leave the girl to look after herself and &c
| back to Mooifontein.'
} But this was not Johns view of the matter
( SWELL " he said, "at any rate, I'll have try.
Indeed, be had sort of bulldog sentiment
about him that led him to believe that, if he
3 made up his mind to do a thing, he would dc
=, it somehow, unless he should be physically III
capacitated by circumstances beyond his owl
NoullVl 1t - Ntlhlti INV Lar u luDOu bl
{ this sort will take man. Indeed, it is the
t widespread possession of this sentiment thai
has made England what she is. Now it is be
ginning to die down and be legislated out Of
, our national character. and the results al,
already commencing to appear in the incip
Q lent decay of our power. We cannot gov
{ ern ireland. 1t is beyond us; let IRELAND
have home rulei We cannot cope with oul
: imperial responsibilities; let them be cast off
Z and so on The EngliShmcn of fifty years az,
did not talk like this Well, every nation be
comes emasculatcd sooner or later that seem
> to be the universal fate; and it appears tina
o it is our lot to be emasculated not by til,
e want of law, but by plethora of it Thi
4 country was made, not by governments, bu
i mostly in despite of them by the Independent
b efforts of a series of individuals The ten
t dency nowadays is to merge the individual il
tho government, aud to limit and evel
1 forcibly destroy personal enterprise and re
s sponsiblity. Everything is to be legislate,
for or leglslatcd against. The system is onl
f in its bud yet When it blooms the en-
pire will lose touch of its individual atoms an